UPDATE: The AP has silently removed the offending quote. This just strengthens the point: Journalism is dead at the AP.

There has been a bizarre flurry of outrage today as convicted murderer Ronnie Lee Gardner opted, as is his right under Utah law, to be executed by firing squad as opposed to the more commonplace lethal injection. Gardner murdered an innocent bystander(why are bystanders never guilty?) as part of a failed escape attempt.

Though I do not share their opinion, I respect those who have principled objections to the death penalty, and understand their positions.  That is not what we see here.  Death penalty opponents have adopted a disingenuous strategy of attacking each method of execution as cruel and unusual, in an effort to achieve a de facto elimination of the death penalty when they do not have the political or judicial support to achieve an actual elimination.

Judging by the quotes from death penalty opponents, it is far more civilized to be bludgeoned to death with the plowshare of the sterile surgical implements of lethal injection, than to be stabbed by the sword of the military firing squad.

One quote was particularly incomprehensible.  The AP reports that

Lydia Kalish, Amnesty International’s death penalty abolition coordinator for Utah said her organization opposes the state’s effort to see Gardner executed. But despite Utah’s strong religious roots – it’s the home of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – most here support the use of the death penalty.

“I think in Utah, when it suits their purposes, they go back to the Old Testament and the ‘eye for an eye’ kind of thing,” Kalish said. “These people may be the worst of the worst, but if the best we can do is repeat the same thing, it’s so obviously wrong.”

The AP’s reporter, Jennifer Dobner, begins by stating that support of the death penalty is in contradiction with religiosity.  Upon what basis this statement is made is unclear. It is possible that this is indeed true of Ms. Dobner’s own religious tradition, but her audacity in extrapolating it to others is shocking.  It is typical of a peculiar sort of moral relativism, which allows only for those moralities of which one personally approves.  She attempts to support her statement with an incomprehensible quote from Ms. Kalish, a “death penalty abolition coordinator,” who begins by impugning the piety of Utah residents who apparently only adhere to their religious traditions “when it suits their purposes.”  She continues on to equate the cold-blooded murder of an innocent bystander with the punishment of an evil murderer after 25 years of due process.

Though Ms. Dobner references “a debate over what critics see as an antiquated, Old West-style of justice,” she manages to complete her article, a fine specimen of objective reporting, without including a single quote from a supporter of the firing squad as a method of execution.

There are those, myself included, who lament the impending death of the newspaper. Articles like this one are the necrotizing flesh on the dying body of  the journalistic enterprise.

Though I support the death penalty, I would not be particularly concerned should it pass from the law of this land as the result of reasoned arguments and consistent positions.  Man’s capacity for logical thought is the foundation stone upon which civilization was built, and upon which it persists.  It is paradoxical that those who would tell us that the death penalty must be abolished as an uncivilized relic of a bloodthirsty time would assert their claim as an appeal to man’s basest instincts. The case must be made as an appeal to reason, or not at all.

While reading the Boston Globe last week, we were surprised to learn that Ghost trackers detect ‘presence’ in town building. Apparently, faced with plummetting profits, the Globe editors have begun to run old stories from the dear, departed Weekly World News.

What else explains the breathless, credulous reporting of this story:

The ghost trackers who spent Monday night at Town Hall investigating eerie footsteps that echo upstairs said they found something that may indicate a paranormal presence.

The two-member team from Paranormal Institute of New England said their laser thermal detector – which measures dramatic drops in temperature that some say indicate the presence of spirits – went temporarily haywire, soaring up, not down. A digital camera that ghost tracker Len Anderson was using also went on the fritz.

“That’s usually an indication of a presence,” he said.

Anderson and his fellow ghost tracker, Ed Beaulieu, are busy this week reviewing the film and audiotapes they obtained Monday night. Spirits are not visible to the naked eye, they say, but do register in photos, videotape, and recordings. Anderson and Beaulieu do not intend to release the full results of their excursion into the paranormal until next week, when they meet with selectmen, who allowed them to investigate rumors of the otherworldly in the 135-year-old building.

Beaulieu said that he didn’t sense a definite unearthly presence in the cavernous room during the investigation, as he has in other locations, but that doesn’t mean there were no spirits present. It’s also possible, he said, that spirits were scared off by reporters who accompanied them on the exploration.

The two may return, by themselves, for another check

Some have claimed that the death of the newspaper is greatly exaggerated; We have proof that it is not: We have seen its ghost.

Apparently, the Department of Defense has run out of email addresses. In the flyer distributed throughout Baghdad announcing a reward for information on missing soldiers, tipsters are urged to send email to a yahoo.com email address(baghdadtipshotline@yahoo.com). The military has apparently been using this address for some time, as it is mentioned in an article on the Fort Drum website from January 2005.

One wonders about the genesis of this. Presumably concerns of professionalism and security were pushed aside in favor of expedience; this is likely the electronic equivalent of troops armoring their own vehicles.

We hope and pray for the safe and quick return of Sgt. Anthony J. Schober, 23, of Reno, Nev.; Spc. Alex R. Jimenez, 25, of Lawrence, Mass.; Pfc. Joseph J. Anzack Jr., 20, of Torrance, Calif.; and Pvt. Byron W. Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Mich. We just hope that bureaucracy and process are not impeding their rescue.

A soldier on patrol in Iraq had his life saved by this iPod. An insurgent fired at him at close range. and he was hit where his iPod was in his jacket pocket. It slowed the bullet down enough that it didn’t completely penetrate his body armor, and he escaped unharmed. More info and pictures here.

We knew the iPod was everywhere…even Iraq. We know you can do all sorts of things with it, and enterprising manufacturers are building accessories that integrate it into clock radios, speakers, etc. We did not know Apple was marketing it as a lifesaving device. Apple has offered to replace the iPod, as have several organizations. Apple should ask to include this in their slogan. “Wear your iPod…it just might save your life.”

Someone placed a fake ad on Craigslist, inviting people to take whatever they wanted for free from a Tacoma, WA rental property. The owner, Laurie Raye, recently evicted her tenant and cleaned out the place. However, a phone call alerted her to the destruction caused. She found the outside trashed, the inside nearly gutted and covered in graffiti.

The house was virtually dismantled. The light fixtures, hot water heater, the front door, the windows…even the kitchen sink. Her neighbors later reported seeing strangers hauling stuff away from her home, seemingly looking for salvage material.

An off-duty police officer noticed the ad, inviting people to enter the house, and later noticed the ad was flagged and cancelled after a reported burglary. Raye believes the poster had a personal grudge against her, and commented that, “The instigator who published this ad invited the public to come in and vandalize me.”

When Raye contacted Craig’s List, she received an email back saying they can’t release information about who posted the ad without a subpoena or search warrant. News story available here.

Oliver Desofi, a 77-year old retired bank executive, has won a battle with Cingular…thanks to the efforts of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Cingular refused to remove more than $31,000 in roaming charges for calls that he said he never made.

Desofi couldn’t have made these calls…as all the over 4,000 calls were made in Nicaragua…a place he has never been. He complained of fraud…Cingular disagreed. We wonder they assumed Mr. Desofi was sleepwalking…or suffers from amnesia about his trip to Nicaragua. They cancelled his account when their fraud department could not find any problems.

While now, the bill has been credited, and an additional $120 added for the inconvenience…should he wish to return…Mr. Desofi does not plan to return to Cingular.  We don’t blame him.